According to a report released by Information Services Group (ISG), a global technology research and advisory firm, enterprises worldwide are increasingly adopting advanced cloud technologies and AI-driven platforms to address the challenges of managing cloud-native environments.
The “2024 ISG Provider Lens Multi Public Cloud Solutions” report highlighted rising demand for multi-cloud solutions as organizations sought scalability and flexibility while maintaining security and cost control.
The report found that many companies embraced cloud-native technologies, including microservices architectures and container-based solutions, to speed up application development and reduce costs. This approach allowed businesses to innovate quickly and avoid vendor lock-in by leveraging open-source tools. However, managing multi-cloud environments introduced new challenges, including rising cloud spending, security vulnerabilities, and system reliability issues.
“Cloud infrastructure rapidly evolved, opening up new possibilities but creating more complex challenges,” said Anay Nawathe, ISG cloud delivery lead for the Americas. “This trend reshaped how enterprises approached digital transformations.”
To address these challenges, organizations invested strategically in three key areas: cloud FinOps (financial operations), observability, and security solutions.
The report noted significant advancements in multi-cloud FinOps platforms, particularly in integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technologies provided real-time insights, predictive analytics, and automated cost optimization. Enterprises increasingly sought comprehensive FinOps platforms to monitor and report cloud usage across all business units, ensuring accurate cost tracking and resource allocation.
As multi-cloud systems became more complex, companies prioritized investments in observability platforms to monitor application performance and detect anomalies. ISG found that AI and ML capabilities were key in helping enterprises understand data flows and identify issues early. Observability solutions became essential for maintaining system reliability and performance in cloud-native environments.
Organizations also adopted advanced cloud security platforms, particularly tools capable of scanning container-based systems for vulnerabilities before deployment. The report noted that generative AI-powered security solutions further enhanced protections by improving the speed and accuracy of threat detection and mitigation.
“Cloud-native FinOps, observability, and security provided enterprises with a unified strategy to manage risk and complexity in multi-cloud environments,” said Jan Erik Aase, global leader for ISG provider lens research. “Leading vendors continue to improve platforms for managing risk and complexity.”
The report evaluated 64 providers across three quadrants: multicloud finops platforms, cloud-native observability solutions, and cloud-native security platforms.